1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing information recorded on an information recording medium such as a CD (Compact Disc) and a DVD (Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) from an arbitrary position, or repeatedly.
The present invention claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2001-023814, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
As to conventional information reproducing apparatuses for reproducing information recorded on an information recording medium such as a CD and a DVD, apparatuses provided with a cue point setting function which quickly starts reproducing information from an arbitrary position in recorded information are known.
When a user uses the cue point setting function to set an arbitrary position in recorded information as a cue point in advance, it is possible to start reproducing from the cue point when the information recording medium is played again.
For example, when the user plays an information recording medium on which music is recorded, and sets a desired position as a cue point while listening to the music, it is possible to automatically seek and reproduce from the set cue point for the next time. Therefore, the cue point setting function provides the user with an excellent convenience.
It is just possible, however, to set an arbitrary position in information recorded on an information recording medium only as a cue point for starting reproduction (a cue point to be sought) on the conventional information reproducing apparatuses. Namely, when the user instructs to set a cue point during an actual reproduction, address information for the part currently played is stored, and thereby a seek operation of the song starting position and a play back therefrom are conducted based on the stored address information in the next reproduction.
As a result, when an user sets multiple cue points for multiple positions in recorded information, there is a problem that the user has to memorize or write down how many cue points are set or what information is recorded at the positions set as the cue points for management. However, it is usually difficult that the user memorizes complete information on positions for the cue points set on the individual information recording media. Further, when multiple cue points are set on multiple information recoding media, an annoying operation such as reproducing the recorded information again to check which cue point is set to which position is required, and thus the user cannot efficiently use the cue point setting function.